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Maddie stretching

s first cereal

In my last post, I shared the rules my
family put together for our first ever Independence Day – a
day when the girls got to do whatever they wanted, whenever they
wanted, but had to be totally independent. They had to feed
themselves, clean up after themselves, and if they wanted to go
somewhere they had to get there under their own power and spend
their own money.

So this past Monday we had our Independence Day, and let me tell
you, it was a glorious thing.

First off, our top rule: no waking Mommy and Daddy. Unless the
house was on fire.

When we finally stumbled downstairs at 9 a.m. (NINE O’CLOCK
IN THE MORNING!) we found the girls sitting on the couch watching a
movie and eating candy. “Have you had breakfast?” I
asked.

“No,” Maddie replied, “We wanted bagels and we
knew we couldn’t use the sharp knives to cut them so we
waited for you.”

Apparently Maddie woke her sister at 7 a.m. – couldn’t
wait any longer – and they got down to business right away,
snacking and watching Cyberchase for about an hour before picking
out a movie.

But did you catch the part where they didn’t wake us up? It
was beautiful.

After they ate their bagels –while
watching the movie – I checked the weather and told the girls
if they wanted to ride their bikes anywhere they’d best do it
soon, since rain was imminent. This? Was big news, because
they’d been planning Junk Food Run for a looong time.

The girls quickly got dressed – as did Mommy and Daddy, who
of course followed them on bikes as they went out. Maddie and Cora
argued about the destination: Cora wanted to hit Walgreens for
candy because it is next to a local ice cream store and they could
buy ice cream for later, but Maddie thought the big grocery store
would have a larger candy aisle and a “decent” ice
cream selection. In the end, expediency won and with Walgreens
being closer, they settled on the drugstore.

If I could, I would buy the surveillance footage from that
Walgreens for that morning. It was the cutest darn half-hour
I’ve ever spent there. Both girls brought their cash, and sat
down on the Walgreens floor crunching numbers and running
scenarios. “This candy section is 3/$3, so I could get three
big boxes for $3, but I don’t want three of this kind of
candy. Those are only 2 for $3, but those are better
candies.”

And so on.

They prowled the whole grocery section, making sure they
hadn’t missed a lollipop display or end cap of gummy bears.
The wandered to the refrigerated section and discovered pints of
ice cream, quickly cutting the trip to the ice cream store so they
could get home sooner and get started on that sugar coma. They
perused the beverages, Cora settling on an organic apple juice and
Maddie selecting a half-gallon (!) of organic lemonade. As she
pulled out the lemonade, committing to spending $3.99 on it, she
said, “Boy, you really need to make a budget when you grocery
shop! Especially when it’s your own money!”

The clerk worked hard to bury her disapproval of the mound ‘o
sugar piled in front of her, and Brian and I stared blandly at her.

Yes, we’re those parents.

We rode quickly home and the girls crowed over their stashes. Cora
ended up with a pint of strawberry ice cream; a bag of Lifesaver
gummes; a movie-theatre-size box of Airheads; a jumbo lollipop
ring; a pint of apple juice;and a jumbo blow-pop. Maddie went
crazy, buying a half-gallon of lemonade; Two movie-theatre boxes of
Nerds; one movie-theatre-size box of gobstoppers; one
movie-theatre-sized box of lemonheads; one movie-theatre-size box
of Whoppers; one movie-theatre-size box of airheads, and a pint of
mint-chocolate chip ice cream.

And they started eating, and didn’t stop.

The girls spent pretty much the rest of the day on the couch,
watching a movie marathon and eating a candy marathon. And the most
amazing thing of all? They did not fight. Once. I’m telling
you, I can’t figure it out; they bicker all the time, and I
was sure sugar would just make it worse. But they were amiable and
happy as clams sprawled on the couch.

They did take a 10-minute play break, and paused briefly to make
mac-n-cheese for their dinners. Maddie even asked me to cut up an
apple for her. But otherwise it was movies-and-candy. And then do
it again.

At bedtime, I lay in bed with Cora, reading a book with her. It's
a vintage children's lit book from the 50's - she LOVES them and
got several more for her birthday (thank you ebay). At the end of
each story there's a short set of ridiculously easy questions. I
read the first question to Cora: "Which friend of the duck said he
makes his home near the pond?"

Cora sat there for a second and said, "I don't want to do the
question things tonight. They're too hard."

My kids' IQs dropped 20 points each that day, I swear.

We had the inevitable difficulty getting up the next day, with the
Mother of All Sugar Hangovers, but both girls were pretty
good-natured about it and happily drank a ton of water to help
detox. And they’ve both mused this week about how long the
junk food affected their digestive system from start to, ahem,
finish, and wondered aloud at how they might do things differently
next time.

For there WILL be a next time. Seriously? I napped, caught up on
HOURS of computer work, read a book – it was AWESOME.

Independence Day rocks.

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